9th International GANZ Conference

Programme as at May 2014

Thursday 18th September

At home with the Brisbane Gestalt community. 5 pm to 7 pm Register, collect name badges and programme. Enjoy a BBQ, music and welcome drinks at the premises of Gestalt Therapy Brisbane, 28 Prospect Tce, Highgate Hill, a short walk from the conference venue.

Friday 19th September

8.00 Registration at Plaza level conference space 8.45 Room P2: Community gathering – orientation.

Welcome to country by traditional owners Conference opening by Kath McCarthy, President GANZ Welcome and Haere Mai from the Conference Committee Opening address by Dr Sally Denham-Vaughan Orientation to venue 10.15 Morning break 10.45 Presentations: series 1. All series offer two workshops and two papers

P1 Camille McDonald 'Capturing a Moment: using visual responses as a reflective process'

P2 Judy Leung Beyond being “present at the edge” – the need to embrace the other polarities?

P3 Brian Hunt “Living On the Edge” Dealing with oppression, despair and hopelessness in Central Australia

P4 Gregg Lahood An Experiment in Therapeutic Democracy

12.15 Lunch 1.15 Presentations: series 2

P1 Madeleine Fogarty Developing a Rater Scale for Gestalt Therapy.

P2 Gabriel Phillips Bridging a divide; creating opportunity: Expanding the horizon of (Gestalt) psychotherapy

P3 Lisa Turnbull Gestalt in the wellness paradigm

P4 Tony Jackson Carolyn Stewart

Loving and the Existential Dialogic Relationship: An Experiential Workshop

2.45 Afternoon break

Friday 19th September

3.15 Presentations: series 3

P1 Emilyn Claid Lynda Osborne

Falling - A Creative Process

P2 Brenda Levien Living and working on a ragged edge………..altered states of development.

P3 Yaro Starak Gemma Garcia

Working with the obvious – art and gestalt therapy at the edge

P4 Susanna Goodrich Socioemotional development: understood through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology and facilitated by Gestalt therapists

4.45 P2 Community experience – the liminal space. Dr Sally Denham-Vaughan In this session we will build on Sally’s definition of ‘Liminal Space’ as a point where linear, (‘Will’-based), and non-linear, (‘Grace’-based), change processes intersect to co-emerge a forum for dialogue; not just between each other, but, as Sally puts it ‘in the between of the field/situation’. Our hope is that as the conference community gains familiarity with these concepts we will be able to use them to support and hold vital conversations leading to key decisions about the future direction that GANZ is mandated to take. 5.30 Break

5.40 P2 GANZ at the edge. Presentation by Kath McCarthy on the latest situation regarding the proposed PACFA restructure of the relationship with Member Associations and their members. Dialogue on the implications of the restructure for GANZ and Gestalt in Australia. The outcomes will provide guidelines for the new Council to be elected at the AGM on Saturday morning.

Free evening

Saturday 20th September 7.45 P1 GANZ AGM breakfast, including elections for Council 8.45 P2 Community announcements 9.00 P2 Neuroscience and the Memory Code – exploring the implications for Gestalt Therapy. Pieter J. Rossouw MClin Psych, PhD, MAPS, MCClin, QCA

Recent discoveries in neural research facilitated a new paradigm in understanding the role of talking therapies to shift patterns of pathology towards wellness. Concepts such as neuroplasticity are commonly used to demonstrate the capacity of the brain to change. What is less clear is the efficacy of various “talking interventions” to maximise these changes. This presentation focuses on the key

principles of neuroscience to facilitate neural change and the implications for Gestalt Therapy. Followed by a Q and A session with a practitioner panel. 10.15 Morning break 10.45 P2 Workshop: applying Gestalt in larger systems. Dr Sally Denham Vaughan Traditional contributions of Gestalt theory to groups and organisations have often focused on the ‘wave’ or ‘cycle’ of experience. Within this workshop I will instead describe a radical, relational, contemporary ‘Self-Other-Situation ’approach taking the theory of self in Gestalt Psychotherapy theory as a starting point. Finally I will describe two approaches to working with larger systems: centralised or ‘intrinsic’ and de-centralised or ‘extrinsic’. I will briefly describe how methods of Relational Public Narrative can support such approaches.

12.15 Lunch 1.15 Presentations: series 4

P1 Mike Reed Diagnosis gone mad: Being present at the edge of difference

P2 Paddy O’Regan Barb Gonda

Returning to contact from the edge of disaster

P3 Lynda Osborne The experience of vitality… ”What the world needs is people who have come alive.”

P4 Cardie Boydell Gestalt and Music

2.45 Afternoon break

Saturday 20th September

3.15 Presentations: series 5

P1 Tracy Santos On the Edge of Life and Death

P2 Sally Brooks The linguistic dance between therapist and client – the hidden potential to verbally construct and construe relational dynamics..

P3 Jane Faulkner Coming home through the way of the horse.

P4 Sandra Manessis Disability – from shame to acceptance – a gestalt perspective

Edge space

Greer White, Paddy O’Regan, Sharon Gray, Angela Shaw

Education and Psychotherapy: A conflict of disciplines?

4.45 P2 Community experience Supporting growth at the edge of vulnerability A facilitated reflection and exploration of how the support we provide clients in their vulnerability may be required by us as both therapists and citizens of the world in disparate locations and unique situations. Support is the antidote to despair. What can we do here to begin to create the support we need. 5.15 Close

7.00 Conference Dinner at The Shore, Southbank. Sit down meal, set menu with choices. Vegetarian and gluten-free options available. Limited complimentary wine and juice. Cash bar. Live music and entertainment. You are welcome to mingle at the bar from 5 pm. Please bring your tickets to the restaurant!

Sunday 21st September

8.45 P2 Community announcements 9.00 P2 Recent research in psychotherapy; implications for Gestalt Therapy. Dr Matthew Bambling MAPS (PhD Qld) Matthew will discuss the key elements from the research about what makes therapy work. Attention will then be given to the challenges of undertaking research into Gestalt styled therapy. Participants will be invited to discuss and identify key methodologies for various levels of scientific inquiry into the effectiveness of Gestalt therapy. 10.15 Morning break 10.45 Presentations: series 6

P1 Alan Meara Cezanne’s Certainty: pre-reflective consciousness in therapy.

P2 Barb Gonda A Circle in a Spiral – a personal journey of supporting the supporter

P3 Alison Lee Making Body Sense

P4 Angela Shaw Margarete Koenning

Finding our "right size": Constellation processes to support therapists.

12.15 Lunch 1.15 Presentations: series 7

P1 Claire Taubert Clinical Hospitality. A consideration of Relational Ethics

P2 Leanne O’Shea The Dark Shadow of Sex: Challenges to the therapist’s capacity for attuned, responsive presence.

P3 Pascal Rohan Brotherhood Without Banners" - from isolation to connectedness for schoolboys ... and therapist!

P4 Lesley McPherson The Relational Enneagram: discovering our therapeutic Edges through the map of the enneagram

2.45 -3.30 P2 Closing ceremony. Conference committee, GANZ President elect. Feedback survey, refreshments Farewell, Haere Ra until we meet again.